With the Grain
FENELTON — State Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding heard about some of the issues affecting county farmers and got a look at CNC Malting Company's process for malting barley and other grains for craft beer and whiskey producers.
Redding on Friday joined area legislators, county commissioners and farmers at the Butler County Farm Bureau's annual legislative farm tour.
During a break in the tour, Redding described the Farm Bureau as a grassroots organization in which policies pursued by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau come from county bureaus.
He said it was important to him to listen to farmers and county commissioners express their opinions on issues, and do a first-hand assessment of crops.
“It gives me a good sense of crops and prices in the fall. The crops here look beautiful,” Redding said.
The agriculture industry is at the center of issues such as health, environment and energy that are addressed at the federal, state and county levels, he said.
High speed broadband is one of those issues.
“We need it,” dairy farmer James Thiele, who is codirector of government relations for the county farm bureau with his brother, William, said during a discussion.
He said farmers need broadband service to help them run their farms and children were really in need of it during the pandemic to do their school work.
County Commissioner Kim Geyer said it would cost companies millions of dollars to extend service lines to sparsely populated rural areas with no assurance that people would connect to the service.
She said the commissioners are developing a pilot program to provide broadband service to certain areas.Leslie Osche, chairwoman of the commissioners, said the service would use the county's emergency dispatch service towers and be similar to service provided in parts of Venango and Clarion counties.Redding commended the county for using a creative approach to address rural broadband. Congress is working on broadband infrastructure legislation, but a lot of work at the state and federal levels is needed for a long-term solution, he said. Penn State University created a map of rural areas without internet access, he added.A rural electric cooperative in another part of the state provides broadband service using its electric service lines, Redding said.Royalty payments from natural gas extraction companies is another priority issue for county farmers.James Thiele called for support for Senate Bill 806, known as the Oil and Gas Lease Act, which simplified the royalty payment system.Landowners who lease the rights to the gas under their property are supposed to receive royalty payments equalling 12.5% of the value of that gas, but end up getting about 3% after the gas companies make deductions for costs they incur, he said.He said 90% of the royalties were deducted from the last check their farm received.William Thiele called the practice “reprehensible.”He said gas companies make deals with landowners, but find legal ways to pay them less than the amount in the agreements.“I don't know how those people sleep at night,” he said.
County farm bureau member Evelyn Minteer said gas companies should not be allowed to make deductions from royalty payments.Redding said he was disappointed to hear those stories about royalty deductions, but said the legislature is trying to deal with it.There are a number of legislative proposals addressing other agricultural issues that the farm bureau supports.The event included a tour of CNC Malting guided by founder and owner Brendan Carroll, who is a chemical engineer.He bought the former Clearfield Township Elementary School, a 30,000-square-foot building, in 2016 to house operations.Barley and other grains are soaked and cleaned for two days in a steep tank before being spread out on the concrete floor of two former classrooms where it germinates for four days. A day spent drying in a kiln is the last step in the malting process.A machine separates the roots from the grain before the finished grain is placed in 55-pound bags and delivered to breweries and distilleries.Carroll said he can also roast, smoke and mill malted grains to meet customer needs.A biomass furnace provides the heat for the kiln, he said.Barley is the grain most commonly malted at the facility, but corn, rye, wheat and oats are also processed. The company buys the grain from local farmers.He said he currently relies on a handful of part-time employees, but will have to expand his staff.Every week, they produce two or three five-ton batches of malted grain, he said.
